January 27, 2015
- Kurdish forces retake Kobane from ISIS, though US resists declaring victory yet.
- Related: For world's biggest nation without a state, Kurdish statehood finally within reach.
- Auschwitz was liberated 70 years ago today; six survivors return to the site to tell their stories.
- Former CIA officer found guilty of espionage for leaking classified information to NYT reporter.
- FBI arrests banker in Manhattan who was allegedly spying for the Russian government.
- EFF announces plan to stop NSA surveillance through tech company pressure, encryption, and litigation reform.
- HSBC gets a slap on the wrist over laundering millions for Mexican cartels.
- The DEA is establishing a database that tracks motorists' movement around the US.
- Israeli psychiatrists find success prescribing ketamine to patients with depression and chronic pain.
- Japanese researchers find aging tastebuds that no longer detect umami result in diminished appetites.
- The professional-training view of college dates to Reagan's time in California.
- That the Reagans relied on astrologers was more or less an open secret.
- Savvy operators prey on conservative base with scam PACs, which take donations but rarely take action.
- US Army commissions portable, prefabricated single-cell prison units.
- About one million people live beneath Beijing in underground—and technically illegal—housing.
- In Phoenix you can sleep on an air mattress in a Tesla Model S for $85 a night through Airbnb.
- Astronomers estimate exoplanet J1407b's ring system is roughly 200 times larger than Saturn's.
- The asteroid that flew by Earth yesterday is so massive that it has its own moon.
- Louis CK cancels MSG show ahead of "historic" snowstorm.
- Emergency food staples milk and bread aren't great for survival—they offer limited nutrition and expire too soon.
- Photos from the New York blizzard of 1888, when some areas received as much as 60 inches of snowfall.
- Archaeologists exploring Blackbeard's ship find ample medical supplies for treating syphilis.